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| | Cameos were an object of especial interest for Empress Catherine II. She joked about her passion for acquiring such gems, describing it as a disease, and her large private collection as "a bottomless chasm". By the late 18th century that collection numbered 10,000 items. In 1787 Catherine had acquired one of the most celebrated collections in Europe, that of the Duc d'Orléans with 1,500 gems in it. The Empress's grandson Alexander I not only inherited her collection, but added to it. In 1805 the large collection of the diplomat Khitrovo came into the Hermitage, while in 1814 Napoleon's former wife Josephine presented the Russian Tsar with the famous Gonzaga Cameo, named for its previous owners the Gonzaga family, Dukes of Mantua.In Nicholas I's reign the Hermitage acquired (as part of the collection of another diplomat, Dmitry Tatishchev) a "dactylotheca" - a portable casket decorated with gemstones outside and containing 141 engraved stones in precious settings, and also a rare cameo depicting the head of Zeus that was bequeathed to the Tsar by Princess Golitsyna. |
